The One Where I Get a Job

I just noticed that this is my 100th post!! Crazy. Thanks for following along for 100 little stories of how I got from where I started - to fittingly, my first yachting job. Cheers to all of us!

I came into this adventure knowing that we may have to work separately. Living apart was the downside we were expecting on our way to our goals. That time finally came. 

It happened quickly. I got a call, an interview, another call and then started packing my tiny bag all over again. Juliano drove me to a train stop. I was nervous about working on my first boat, anxious about leaving Juliano and excited to see what it was all about. 

This is what I had been working for wasn’t it?

I sold my house so I could live here.
I quit my job so I could work here. 
I moved to Florida so I could get onboard here. 
I bought two computers so we could live apart. 
I took courses so I could know what to do here. 

The pressure to be happy with the dreams I had achieved was immense.

I stepped onboard and met the rest of the crew. Six crew keep this 130’ boat floating, moving and clean. It was based in West Palm Beach, a 1 hour train ride north of Fort Lauderdale where Juliano was staying. I liked it here. I work hard right away.

I got hired as Stew/Deck which essentially puts me at the whims of both my chief stew and our first mate. I clean the rooms, I clean the bilges. The pay seems low at first, compared to what I was making at my Official Office Job - but then I realize slowly that I don’t pay mortgage. Or utilities. Or food. Suddenly the amount I’m making stretches much further. Also, I don’t have space to put anything I would buy.

I live on boat now.

Yacht School I: STCW + RIB

Numero Uno question I get asked when strangers find out what I do: 

How did you get a job like that? Did you have to go to school?

Well my friends, I did. I fought fires, I practiced CPR, I swam into a life raft. 

Despite my usual glib-ness about yacht life, safety is a huge factor. Boats burn to the water line in minutes, storms happen, and people fall overboard. Yacht crew are a relatively small group people charged with the responsibility of the guests, other crew members and the boat itself - everyone on a crew list needs to be informed and able to perform in emergency situations.

THE BASICS: STCW ’95

This is a must have to work in the yachting industry. It’s a 5 day course and costs around $900 US. It’s a really fun and informative week, you learn lots about the industry, safety and firefighting.

International Crew Training - STCW 95 from ICT Fort Lauderdale on Vimeo.

THE BONUS: RIB Powerboat II

RIB is a Rigid Inflatable Boat... aka dinghy. Every yacht has (at least) one, and this course will give you the license to drive one. Note I said license, not necessarily skill. This is a quick, 2 day course that will teach you the basics of driving a simple tender. We didn’t really get enough time to be confident drivers, but.... it’s a rubber boat.

ICT Powerboat II from ICT Fort Lauderdale on Vimeo.

Where to go?

We took all of our courses at ICT in Ft Lauderdale. They were great there - friendly and helpful, especially going in a newbies. MPT is the other big school in town, and while we don’t have any personal experience there - we’ve heard good things as well. What ever school you choose, just make sure that its recognized by MCA, USCG and/or PYA.

We're on our way!

Early morning flight, stop over in Dallas and we're in our way... So excited to finally be going!

Yep. That is ALL OF OUR LUGGAGE {we're both wearing small backpacks in this pic}. We're travelling carry on only - and I'm stressed already that I've brought waay too much stuff! It's going to be an adventure.


Ps. We're having a debate on the value of upgrading to first/business class. I vote it's worth about $100/hour of flight time. {So a 2hr flight is worth it of its a $200 upgrade.} Buuuut... I haven't quite shifted my mindset to someone with no job! What do you think??

We Don't Have JOBS!!

Yep, You are looking at a bunch of unemployed vagabonds for the time being!!

My last day of work was Friday, and it feels soooo weird to not be at work today. No matter - I scheduled us some massages to 'ease our pain'.

[Budget Note: Yep, I knoooow we're supposed to be cheap when we have no jobs and we're planning on travelling. But seriously, we booked with students at a massage school - so it's cheap! And we're helping someone get an education. Who doesn't believe in education?? Exactly.]

We had one last run to the storage locker yesterday, and have some banking and shopping to do to get our last minute packing done... I'll get a money post up in a bit now that we have a solid handle on our pre-adventure finances...

Have a great day - 3 more sleeps to Florida!

Van Sold, Party Had

Hey Friends!

Holy crap - countdown is almost done! 4 days until departure for us...crazy. All of our last-minute stuff is almost done, except packing of course. We sold our van (Yeay, another $1000!), so now we officially own nothing that doesn't fit into a backpack. (Or a small storage locker)

We went out with some friends to celebrate our going away, had some beer at a German pub called WURST. If you're in Calgary, it's a great place - the basement is a Beer Hall. I already love beer, now I love halls. They play games like 'Stein-Holden' where you have to hold a one litre mug of beer out in front of you. Last one standing wins beer...

We both lost. Also this happens every weekend:

It's been a surprisingly emotional week saying all of our goodbyes. I guess we've been so excited, and a touch anxious about the details of our adventures, that we haven't really thought about saying our farewells.... So, while everyone we talk to asks us if we are going to miss the people at home we never really thought about the fact that they might miss us. Quite unsettling.

But, the world is small and technology is fast and amazing. Everyone has our skype/facetime/email/facebook/twitter/blog information to contact anytime. Now it's up to us to try to stay in touch as well.

Countdown is on, we're nursing some mild hangovers today and spending all of our time with family and friends...

D&J

We're Moving Friends!

Hi Friends and Family... 

Guess What?

In about 2 weeks. Holy Crap.

Welcome to the blog. I wrote it to tell you a bit about the crazy decisions we were making to sell our stuff, move away and add a splash of adventure to our lives! Take a look around if you want, here's our first post which explains a little about what we're doing and why...

Keeping in touch with our family and friends from home is super important to us... so I'll try to keep this blog updated with where we are and what we're up to as we go. In return, please comment, email, facebook, Skype, FaceTime or message us as much as you want!

We love you all - so buy us a beer before we're gone :)

D&J

ps. for our regular bloggy friends.... telling our friends and family is another check of the champagne list!

OMG. WE BOOKED A DATE.

Holy Shit Friends. We've done it. We Booked a DATE.

Pause.  Rewind.  Review.

It was almost a year ago (Nov 2011) that we first had the discussion. We talked and talked and decided that maybe this Calgary life wasn't exactly what we were looking for right now. Maybe, we should take this double-income-no-kids moment in our life as an opportunity for something crazy instead of a stepping stone to the next inevitable 'phase' in life. We asked each other what our goals were if we were to give up the fairly awesome and successful existence that we had earned ourselves... these were our answers:

Dana: Adventure. I want to travel and see the world. 

Juliano: I want to be financial independent, debt free and ahead of the game. 

Those goals are not usually compatible. But we got some inspiration together, and we threw around a few ideas that might work. The Big Idea came up, and both of us thought "noo... that's crazy!". But soon, 'no...that's crazy' starts to turn into... 'what if...'  which turns into 'could we really?'

Friends, let me tell you - What Ifs can take over your life. Literally. What if we made money while we were traveling? What if we could travel indefinitely? Eventually... What Ifs turn into Could We Really?s. Could we really sell our house? Could we really move away from family? Could we really quit our jobs?

We just started answering YES to every question. YES, we could make money and travel at the same time. YES we could sell our house. YES we could move away. YES is a very powerful word, so it seems.

We began to secretly put a plan into place to move us closer to this goal. We saved money, and sold our stuff. We didn't buy or receive any Christmas gifts that year. We only told a few people about our 'crazy' plan.... and then we listed the house. And sold more stuff. And moved. And saved. And waited.

What started out as a silly idea between two people turned into and HUGE project that we felt was taking all of our time and effort. Now that we're close to the finish line, this plan has taken on momentum of it's own and is snowballing ahead of us, dragging us along for the adventure of lifetime.

We're excited, anxious, busy with so many details and a touch overwhelmed. But we really wanted to solidify the plan and make it a 'Real Thing' in our minds. So we bought our plane tickets! Yep.

We are now the proud (VERY PROUD!) owners of two one way tickets from Calgary, Alberta, Canada to the yachting capital of North America - Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. We leave...

September 22, 2012

Holy Shit. It's less than seven weeks away. We're moving this weekend to live in a condo with some friends, and we'll stay there until we leave. I still have to give notice at my work, decide on a packing list (yikes!), register for some courses, book a place to stay, organize our finances here (will share that with you!), finish a million detail of our lives here and about eleventy-million other things.

Let's get this party started!

Cheers, D & J

$275.99

Hey Friends! 

Brief Interruption: I disappeared again for a bit - I guess 'the internets' spooked me out a bit. I started this blog using my full real name without thinking too much about it, and recently several casual acquaintances and friends have found out about the blog (not too hard really). It has always been my intention to let all of my family and friends know about the blog... but being 'outed' about the blog spooked me, and I was avoiding it for a while (can I get a woot-woot from the other avoiders out there?!) On the the fun stuff:

After the negotiations in the pub in Portland - we had to run off to an Office Depot…. 

But - You're dying to know if we made our millions selling the house! So, drum roll please….

$275.99

After lawyer fees, real estate fees, negotiations with the buyer and all that jazz... That's how much we made selling our house. I know, don't spend it all an once, right? It was a hard process that we alluded to HERE and HERE and even HERE. And in the end we shared our excitement over selling HERE! That was a fun day. After all was said and done, we broke even - coming out just a squeak ahead!  

We sold our furniture. We donated our clothes to Goodwill. It's crazy how much stuff people accumulate when living in a set place for what they expect to be an indeterminate amount of time. We're still culling through it, scaling back and cutting down. The good news is that seeing your 'stuff' in boxes on the floor of your mom's basements sure adds perspective to their worth. It's simplicity time!! 


Cheers, until next time!

House Selling 101: Do it in a bar.

Okay friends, I know you all want to know about our trips, but we have WAY MORE EXCITING NEWS to share!

We sold our house!

WHILE ON VACATION. 

Yep, the deal is already firm and possession is June 15. That is exactly 30 days from today. Or 722 hours... but who's counting? Money question: We'll end up breaking even.After nearly 3 months on the market, we're happy with that.

Here's the funny part for you - we got it all on video!  Juliano [the video nerd] was trying to film some beer tastings we were doing for his Portland video when I got the call from our realtor. So, through the magic of technology - I present you:

Selling a house while sampling beer in the middle of the day!

And that is our tale bloggy friends. I'll be rolling out our trip stuff and keeping you posted about the move - yikes! Meanwhile, out of town family will be staying with us this weekend and next... so we'll be busy!

Imma Back!

Hello Bloggy Friends!

It's been a while since I've made an appearance around here - and while I'm not going to grovel and apologize (it's my blog! I'll neglect it if I want to!) I will say this: All you other bloggers who keep up regular content while traveling, you get a a huge digital HIGH FIVE! from me. Seriously.

I hear you saying 'this is a job' and 'blogging takes lot of time and effort'... what I actually heard was 'sunshine! traveling! writing about stuff! beer!'. Soo.... excuse my rude awakening while I tip my hat to your awesomeness.

Anyways, I've been up to LOTS of fun stuff, that I'm super-excited to tell you about so hold onto your hats. Here's a recap of what I've been up to and what's coming up soon:

• I went to Houston, Texas - that place is f*cking hilarious and awesome, it was all crawfish and two-steppin' for me
• Traveling solo + carry on only makes me feel like a badass super traveler
• I went on a Pacific NW road trip. Road Trips are CRAZY - you see so much stuff! 
• Portland is weird, lots of beer
• Seattle is cool, lots of coffee
• Vancouver is fancy
•  I ate/drank my face off - and my work pants juuuuustbarelyfit this morning. Problematic.
• We have some exciting house news brewing on the horizon - will keep you posted.
• I definitely want to travel forever and ever

Have a great day - I'll be blog stalking all my friends and catching up with you too!

Cheers!

Living on Our Own Terms

 Whats Up Bloggy Friends,

Sorry I disappeared on such a cranky-old-lady note!  I put on a grump face and couldn't shake it off... It got us to thinking and talking, and we've been guilty of one thing that we think has been sabotaging our success...

we keep living for tomorrow

How many cliche 'live in the moment' posters/quotes/inspirational cards have you seen?? A million?? MORE? Because we're so excited, and so motivated to 'move forward' with our plan, and to sell sell sell, move move move, we have been compromising our own decision-making skills for the benefit of getting to tomorrow faster.

How?? We accepted a conditional offer on the house that was lower than our financial base. Not by much, but it was more compromise than we were willing to make. We put a deposit down on a storage locker that we don't need yet. We keep hurtling ourselves forward without a thought or a care to the consequences, as long as it feels like we're moving forward.

We had to step back and realize that we are not leaving the life we have as refugees, but rather as emigrants looking for a new life. 

We still have our jobs, and we can afford to keep the house for as long as it takes to sell - on our terms. This entire BIG IDEA has been built around living our lives on OUR TERMS and not following the path laid out for us... and we have to start applying that decision making philosophy to our everyday, and our choices.

Here's to living live on our own terms 

~ big and small ~

Stop Being Complacent!

 
House Update: We dropped the list price by $7000 in an attempt to speed up the process.

Honest Moment: I've been feeling really complacent lately.


With no offers on the house and not much going on adventure-wise - it's been easy to lose sight of our goal a bit and get comfortable with our lives here again... it's a trap I don't want to get stuck in. So, to combat this: I want to move forward with things we need to do anyways! I know the house isn't sold, but packing up might send out some good intentions to ol' universe...

I got all of our boxes from a nearby wine store... we didn't drink all that booze. Unfortunately.

Cheers!

Our House is LISTED!

It's finally time! After LOTS of cleaning and prepping - we're on the market. The contract is signed, the pictures are up and we're ready for our showings... Curious? Here the pictures of our house:

Front of our house:

This post is long and full of pictures - see the rest after the jump!

Holiday!!

If we took a holiday - Took some time to celebrate - Just one day out of life
It would be, it would be so nice -  Holiday! Celebrate!

Ha! That's going to be stuck in your head all day... Too bad though, because we're going on....
 a Holiday! To Mexico! Arriba!

It is -35 degrees Celsius today. I'm frozen, and I take the train to work in the morning! Brrr....

But lucky for us - We have something to look forward too! I know that it seems crazy for us to go on a holiday in the middle of planning such an adventure - and it is. We have the best deal ever though... My parents are going on a trip through their work, and with a sprinkle of magic and a dash of air miles - we're crashing the second half of their holiday!
UPDATE: My brother's coming too! It's a family party!

We're going to Puerto Morelos, Mexico - about halfway between Cancun and Playa de Carmen. Here:

It's all sunshine, beaches, good food and open bars..countdown is on! We're staying at the super-swanky Now Sapphire Riviera Cancun. We'll tell you all about it when we get back!

 

Ps. I thing there's a big divide to be made between traveling and vacationing. I'll post more about that later.

State of the Uterus Address

 **NOTE: I'm not actually preggo in this pic. It's the fake belly from a maternity store.**

**I highly suggest this as an activity with preggo friends - it was a good day**

Sigh. Yep, this is conversation that I've had a million times - so here we go again:

You: What are you doing? I thought you'd have babies by now!
Me: Yeah, me too. But I'm not.
You: What?!?! WHYYYY?? Have some BABIES!! Babies are so GREAT!
Me: I know, I generally like babies. But not now, I've got some other stuff on the go. Plus I'm still young!
You: You're not YOUNG! You're TWENTY SEVEN! That's almost THIRTY!
Me: I'm aware of how time works. I will one day... ha ha...
*starts to get awkward*
You:  But you SHOOUULLDD! It will be so FUUN!
Me: Fuck off. No Vacancies in this Uterus!

Okay, so that may be a sliiight exaggeration of the whole thing. But really - people expect us to have babies. And not in a malicious way - I have fully lead them to believe that this is where I'm headed. This is the case I currently present to the world:

Reason I could should would be able to have a Baby:

1. I have a husband. {Heterosexual monogamy? Double Points!}
2. I have a house with an additional bedroom. In the 'burbs.
3. I have a car with 4 doors and some airbags. {Safety first people!}
4. I am 27 years old - sooooo close to over the hill! My Eggs are OLD!
5. My friends have babies.
6. I like babies. {Except on planes - sorry friends with babies!! I don't hate yours! Just other babies on planes. Just the ones that cry. I KNOW it's not your fault, it's a baby... but still. I. Like. To. Sleep.}
7. I have a job. So does my husband. {Yeay - stability!}
8. I have a fully functional uterus. {Most people don't really know that, specifically.}

See? I get it why people are all gung-ho about me having babies. I have all the things society tells me I need before I have babies.**  It's the next natural step of life:

And don't get me wrong in all of this, I do love babies and kids.But here's some other things I love right now:

1. Drinking. Mostly wine. And Champagne. And fancy gin.
2. Sleeping. In long stretches.Whenever I want.
3. Eating Sushi!! This is fairly arbitrary, only applies to pregnancy,  not a strong argument.
4. Traveling recklessly. {Ah, here's a big one.}
5. Selling everything I own and moving away from my support system. {another solid strike}
6. Not having babies. {Checkmate my friends, check. mate.}

 But really, I'm not quite ready yet. There were a number of things that Juliano both wanted to do before we officially 'settled down'. One was open a business - check, the others aren't done yet!

When we look at our friends who have kids already, we're overjoyed for them and we LOVE their kids SO MUCH. And we know that we want that eventually - but it just doesn't feel right yet for us.

 My friends who are moms tell me that that all of those things are completely forgotten about when have a baby of your own. A bit tsunami of love comes over you and nothing else matters.
Guess What? I BELIEVE YOU! 

And this is my response:

 But really, this choosing not to have babies business does have some downsides, mostly personal. I was talking to a close friend a few days ago about this - and we were both surprised to discover that we felt the same way about delaying babies. There are a few things about it that affect me:

I'm worried about being an 'old mom'. I know that people have babies at all sorts of ages now, but for some reason - I've always assumed I'd be a 'super-young mom'. As in - babies DONE by 30. This seemed especially possible when I got married at 23! Now at 27 it's still not time. Not a bad thing, just different from what my original plans were, and I have to adjust to that.  

I want Juliano to be a dad. I know that it's cheesy, but I think so many women know that they want to marry someone after seeing them with kids. I know I did. Juliano is SO GREAT with kids - even though his thoughts are exactly on par with mine at the moment, I still feel like I'm potentially 'taking something away' from him - and me!

I do see WHY it's a good idea to wait and WHY it's a good idea to just get on it {ha ha.. no pun intended}. But for now - we delay and do life like we want for a bit. We'll come back for you future mini-deBritos!


** Don't send me cranky email about not needing these thing to have a baby. Yes, you can have a baby without a husband - obviously!! I KNOW!! These are just reason why people think I should have one. Sheesh.

Happy New Year Happiness

 I love New Year's Eve so much! It's a great way to celebrate everything that you did in the previous year, and holds so much hope for the coming year. The eternal optimist in me comes out to shine - all for a glass of champagne and a kiss at midnight. I could be biased though:

 Look how young! How Excited!  If I could go back for a minute, I would say be brave, be adventurous and don't let anything stop you from doing what you dream of. Don't compromise {too much} for other people's opinions. Here's what else I would say:

How to be Happy out of the Current

{according the the de brito epistles, which have no authority over anything}

Take responsibility for you life to date. Don’t blame anyone else for your situation, own up to all the elements of your life - good and bad as 'We are the Architects of our own Adversity'. Your life is the sum of the consequences of your actions, which are regulated by the choices you make. Not all actions are choices that you WANT to make… but here you are.

Cut out the Bullshit!  This can include people who cause you drama or situations you dislike. These can be big or small. Are you endless fixing the same piece of technology or talking to the same person about the same thing ?? Work on permanent solutions for these problems, or cut them out of your life completely. When you're surrounded by drama, you expend SO MUCH energy dealing with it - or feeding its fires.

Drop your old baggage – you can't move forward in this life with the endless negativity of your past weighing down on you. Regrets, grudges and resentments don't get you anywhere. They cloud your judgement and close you off to new ideas or opportunities. I know it's hard, but Let It Go.

 Question everything – ask yourself WHY you are doing why you’re doing. WHY you work in the field you do, WHY you live where you do, WHY you believe what you believe. Don't just give yourself the 'cocktail party' answer, really think about it.

Be brave and be vulnerable. Leaving elements of your life behind is hard. It causes you to question many of your choices, values and theories on things. Do this! Be brave when you make a decision and stick to it. Be vulnerable with your questioning and to the people closest to you.

This is just a list of things that we're going to working on, and moving forward in 2012. Check out this Resolutions post for some more info about the specific things I want to learn/do this year! 

 Try a couple of simple things at home to put you out of your comfort zone. These are all experimental, and we’ll be doing them throughout our leaving process to help with the ‘culture shock’ of leaving the familiar…

o   Go to a restaurant and try food you’ve never tried -  Get crazy with it!

o   Learn a new sport. Even if you’re crappy and sports and always get hit in the face with the ball... so what’s the point of even trying?! Yeah, that’s me. Hello.. surfing.

o   Take a class - it's a great way to discover a new world and meet new people

o   Do something you’re scared of - even if it's small. I'm going to try more blue runs!

o   Give up something comfortable. I want to eeeeaaaaase myself into. Personal Space, Privacy, Independence and Proximity to Family are some of the big things we'll be compromising on this year. One step at a time.

Sorry for the list of cliches, it's an inevitable at this time of year. 

Enjoy the rest of your Holiday, Make 2012 a year to remember!

**Side Note** Want to know why we're always wearing white at New Years? It's a Brazilian tradition.

Prepping the House

Sooo... we had our realtor over {Anne Lindsay if you live in Calgary - She's awesome}and she mentioned a few 'upgrades' that our house could use before we sell. Here's some news for you:

SELLING STUFF IS WAY HARDER THAN BUYING STUFF.

I didn't think you'd be surprised, but really - it is. So... painting and hanging curtains are all on the list! Since we're using this blog to let you know HOW we executed our plan...
Here's a big part of it: We painted.....

I'll save you the before pictures... but here's how it looks now - want to buy my house?? It's not listed yet, maybe in January?

That's all for now - we'll update on the progress of the house/sale as we go :)

Inspiration and Adventure...

Ok Here Goes….

So, you're here because you think we’re crazy? You’re wondering what the hell we were thinking? Or you’re just curious? Well – welcome. I’m here because I have the memory of a goldfish, and am about to do some pretty awesome things. Also, so our parents a can see photographic proof we’re still alive.

Since this is the first post, I’ll start from scratch. Here’s the coles notes version of life we have:

• Dana  + Juliano = Married people
•  0 Kids, 26 and 30 years old
• Dog named Mango that lives with my mom part time most of the time.
• A Townhouse we own. It’s a very nice townhouse, I like living here. I painted it grey.
• A condo that we rent out. Landlady D!
• Successful jobs in the Oil & Gas industry: D in Real Estate, J as GIS Analyst (yep, I had to google it too)
• A business at a local farmer’s market. Mr Esfihas!
• Loads of awesome friends
• Great family, within Calgary, throughout AB and Canada, even more in Brazil!

Too Legit to Quit you think? (ha ha.. see what I did there? MC Hammer.)  We have to stop and recognize that we worked really hard to get all the things we have. School… Work… Business… you name it. But once you work hard to get anything – does it mean you have to keep it all? What if everything that you’ve worked for, doesn’t really seem like what you want anymore? You see a lot of cheesy quotes out there – inspiring you to get brave and take the 'reigns of life’ like I’m Santa on the 24^th. You also see a lot of people with long bucket lists and short lives. So that’s the start: a bit of unhappiness with our current life, too much debt and not enough adventure….